My family has had two visis to the ER this week. My hubby severed an artery in his thumb, and we spent four hours in one ER on Wednesday (after I had been out of town Monday and Tuesday, thank you very much). It turned out to just be the artery and no tendon or nerve damage, but we went there just to be safe (opposable thumbs are important). I got to see quite a bit of action, because it was rather dramatic for a thumb boo-boo. After my husband’s right hand fell asleep from putting pressure on the left thumb, the blood just started gushing and he nearly passed out after 45 minutes in the waiting area. They rushed him back and gave him a fluid IV and one of the techs became his thumb-holder for the next two hours. I got to watch the doc wash the wound out, give him lidocaine shots, try to sew it up (too much missing skin), etc. The tech is entering PA school in fall, so I chatted with her a lot, too.

Then, yesterday my kid got tackled by a huge kid when playing football after school. I thought he was just being a whiner, but when he couldn’t move at the waist without crying 3 hours later, and there was no bruise, we decided to take him to the ER. He was fine - probably just a bruised kidney - but I want to be safe (esp since we’ve already met our med ins deductible). I think I watch too many Discovery Health shows, so I am paranoid that he’s going to be suffering internal bleeding in his sleep while he looks “fine.”

I wonder that too. I would think you would have to have a doctor that would vouch for you shadowing. Could it be clinic hours? LOL. I want to count my time, every time a passenger passes out on a plane and I have to assist a doctor onboard. Hehehe. Instead, I have to consider that I have a strong stomach and I make my plans to officially shadow and count that. I hope someone answers you.

Probably need to contact your Med School to get the definite answer on counting job shadowing experience. Cheers!

(I thought AliJ was asking the question kind of tongue in cheek, but since there are responses…)

Your personal experiences with the health care system are NOT shadowing. But they ARE valuable life experiences, and they will help you to talk more empathetically and knowledgeably about what that experience in our health care system meant to you, taught you, symbolized for you. It is certainly OK to talk about landmark experiences, or even run-of-the-mill experiences. But shadowing is when you’re trying to put yourself in the doctor’s shoes… and you aren’t in the parent’s (or child’s, or spouse’s, or patient’s) shoes.